Senegal: 14 file war crimes complaints against ex-Chad dictator Habre

[JURIST] Fourteen Chadian and Senegalese citizens filed complaints with a Senegal prosecutor Tuesday, alleging war crimes and torture by former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre [HRW materials; JURIST news archive]. Habre fled to Senegal after being overthrown in 1990, and last month a Chadian court sentenced him to death in absentia [JURIST report] for crimes committed against the state. The complaints filed against Habre Tuesday are seen as an attempt to hasten Habre's Senegal trial. Reuters has more. AFP has additional coverage.

Habre has been accused of involvement in the murder or torture of more than 40,000 political opponents during his rule from 1982 to 1990. Senegal courts have long refused to extradite Habre, despite the issuance of an international arrest warrant [JURIST reports] by Belgium pursuant to its universal jurisdiction laws [HRW backgrounder]. Under growing international pressure to either try Habre locally or extradite him to Belgium, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade [official profile, in French; BBC profile] agreed in April 2006 to try him in Senegal and the Senegalese government later determined [JURIST report] he would face charges in a criminal court, rather than in front of a special tribunal. Previously the Senegalese courts dismissed an action against him in 2001 [HRW case backgrounder], claiming that they lacked jurisdiction over crimes committed elsewhere. In July this year Senegal formally adopted [JURIST report] a constitutional amendment giving the nation's courts jurisdiction over Habre's trial.

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